A brand new thing!

It has been a long time since I made a new post, and a lot of life's waters have passed under my bridge.  At 55 years old (three years ago) I went back to school, a two year full time course at the local college.  I graduated with honours, in spite of my daughter falling ill and me having to reduce my course load.  Then, just as I was getting my new career under way, boom!  Guess what, it's cancer.  Tests, appointments, chemo, more appointments, surgery, more surgery, and I'm out the other side.  Only took almost two years.  But I'm good now and am ready for my next adventure!

During my treatment and recovery, one of my anchors was cross stitch.  I've been a stitcher for years, decades even, and I have always been a dabbler in design, so it was a natural leap to get into designing for real.  And hey, I have a wealth of photographs in my portfolio that would make great cross stitch pictures!  So Magic Hour Designs was born.  After only about six weeks, my Etsy shop is starting to get noticed, and I'm starting to see some sales.

So if you are looking for A Brand New Thing, check out my shop!  I have something for everyone, even beginners looking to try out a new craft.  See those bookmarks?  I'll be having lots of gift ideas available, too.

Happy stitching, everybody!

MagicHourDesigns.ca

Intrepid explorers

The other evening, as I went into the back yard to enjoy the tranquillity of my garden, I surprised four young raccoons, just climbing onto the patio over the garage roof.  I let them be, allowed them to explore, but I had recently cat-proofed my fence (with only marginal success) so they couldn't find their way out.  Their mama came looking, and eventually I had to leave the gate open and go back in the house so they could carry on their merry way.  They were so cute!

Count the noses to see all four of these cuties!A cross stitch pattern based on this photo will be coming soon!

My Gardening Addiction

Living in Niagara, our weather is considerably better than most areas of Canada, and that gives us the chance to grow lush, varied gardens that other Canadians can only dream about.  That may sound like bragging (because it is!) but I have lived here for more than 25 years, and I love it!  I have only been a somewhat serious gardener for a couple of years, so I am still in the neophyte stage, and having a shoestring budget means I spend a lot of time of Kijiji, looking for "deals".  I am looking forward to someday getting a few exotics and rarities.  Right now my most exotic plant is a goatsbeard!  Top marks for the cool name, but it's basically a really big astilbe.  Still, I am pleased with them, and they do really quite nicely in the back of my garden bed.  I'll be posting a few photos over the summer so you can enjoy my garden along with me.  Cheers!

Campanula, also called Bellflower

Purple campanula in the shade of the apricot tree

An interesting little green spider that seemed to like my honeysuckle!